May was a good book month for me!

I finally feel back to my reading self and have been basically consumed by the need to read…almost as if in 2020 I was starving and now I have so much to choose from and I can’t get enough.

My number one book of the month was the one that my kids created for me for Mother’s Day: Our Mom the Superhero staring Eamon and Mary. Seriously, my family gets me…they made me a book 🙂

Stand out/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ print books this month were:

~ Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

An author is overheard (at Panara) discussing then plot of her novel and she is mistaken as a hired assassin. Hi-jinx ensue! I devoured this book in 36 hours. I found it funny and am so looking forward to (hopefully) book 2.

Smacked: White Collar Ambition, Addiction and Tragedy by Eilene Zimmerman

~A memoir about a woman, her children, her ex husband and the destruction that drug addiction produces. This too, I devoured in 48 hours. I understood the heartache and regret that the author expressed. The author, Eilene Zimmerman, was interviewed on Sarah’s Bookshelves Live and is a good listen.

~When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

This was a #Meredithmademedoit read (Currently Reading Podcast). This is middle grade and is about friendship and time travel. It was very good. I became teary and honestly felt teary days later when I thought about it. It stuck with me. In fact, I originally rated it ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and bumped it up to ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ since it stuck with me so much.

Most of my other print reads were all solid reads, ⭐⭐⭐ or ⭐⭐⭐⭐.

~The Editor by Steven Rowley, Death at the Salon by Louise R. Innes, Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien, Reading Between the Crimes by Kate Young.

The books I was “meh” on were: Intimations by Zadie Smith, Death in the Yoga Store by Peter Ross Range, Waiting for Eden by Elliot Ackerman

My top audio books were:

~The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz.

I listened to this at 1.75x speed and I felt that fit the character. Set in 1916, it is about Joan who escapes her farm life by becoming a hired girl in a Jewish household. This was a sweet book and brought me lots of Anne of Green Gable vibes.

~ Hollywood Homicide and Hollywood Ending by Kellye Garrett

Narrated by the great Bahni Turpin, these were fun, light, laugh out loud listens. An out of work actress (who really doesn’t want to be an actress any more but needs a job so desperately she is currently living in her besites shoe closet) stumbles into becoming a PI. I can’t wait to listen to book 3.

The others were solid good listens: Strangled Eggs and Ham by Maddie Day, Must Love Otters by Eliza Gordon.

Beach Read by Emily Henry was an “meh” for me. This one had too many cliche’s for me.

My one DNF for the month was the soon to be released The Maidens by Alex Michaelides (author of The Silent Patient). From what I see on #bookstagram and reviews in NetGalley and GoodReads, I seem to be in the minority on this one. I rated it ⭐ and gave up at 45% though the audio. I found it boring, the plot didn’t more and the characters were unmemorable.

That is it for May, hopefully I didn’t forget any books or audios.

Have a great reading June!